Yoda's Swamp Technical Support Center

[manoman81]

Hey guys, I've been having problems playing dvds on my desktop. I was using MPC to watch my movies, but now the audio and video are insanely choppy. VLC just crashes and for whatever reason, WMP 11 says that it can't play dvds because my resolution is too high no matter how low I set them. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

[Boba Rhett]

Is your computer still running in DMA/Ultra DMA mode?

 

Right Click My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager button > Plus Sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller. From there check the adavanced settings on your IDE channels. Their transfer modes should be set to "DMA when available". Or at least have DMA somewhere in the name of what they're doing. If it says PIO, we'll need to change it.

[RoxStar]

Hey guys, I've been having problems playing dvds on my desktop. I was using MPC to watch my movies, but now the audio and video are insanely choppy. VLC just crashes and for whatever reason, WMP 11 says that it can't play dvds because my resolution is too high no matter how low I set them. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

 

I have that problem on my XP install. The solution was to install and use Media Player Classic for DVDs.

 

link: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303

[manoman81]

Yeah, I already checked for the DMA settings and changed my secondary IDE to DMA. Still doing it.

 

I have that problem on my XP install. The solution was to install and use Media Player Classic for DVDs.

 

link: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303

 

I'll try to redownload it in the morning and see if it works. I really hate that the dvd makers insist on putting software on the that autoplays. I tried turning that off too and then the dvd wouldn't even register in My Computer.

 

Edit: OK, I updated my video card and motherboard drivers. Not sure which one fixed it (I'm betting on the mobo drivers), but it works now. Thanks guys.

[Boba Rhett]

I need some serious help. I'm getting scratching noises coming from my speakers whenever I move my mouse over something in windows. Also, sounds in games are very very scratchy and the sound normally goes out after a few minutes of it and I have to restart to get and sound to play on my system at help. My sound is integrated (VIA VT1617 on a KT880 Delta motherboard). Someone please tell me what I can do to fix this or at least what is causing it.

[BongoBob]

Are you using the latest drivers?

[Ray Jones]

Hm. Question - when I have a running system, with running software, and suddenly it stops working correctly, without that the system has changed -- why should it be the driver?

 

Except, .. what did you do to you system Rhett?? Any installations? Any de-installations? Upgrades? Hardware changes? BIOS settings changed? Your credit card number?

 

Have you been making lurve to you computer again, Rhett?

 

Seriously, we cannot help you, unless you're at least trying to work with us here, Mr. Rhett!! Keeping secrets is not going to help you.. So.. the last porn you downloaded,.. was it satisfying?

[Boba Rhett]

I'm using the latest drivers I can find.

 

It's a clean system. I noticed several days before it got this bad that the sound would just go out and I would have to restart. The day it got horrible was the day I installed Knights of the Nine. I had made no hardware changes, uninstalls or bios changes. My blood pressure was 119 over 78, the national deficit had hit an all time high and I hear tell that the great Leprechaun migrations of South Leinster were in full swing. My credit card number is 1237-8520-5315-1502, Exp is 09, 09.

 

I've ordered a cheap SB Audigy and am just planning on disabling the onboard sound.

[manoman81]

I've ordered a cheap SB Audigy and am just planning on disabling the onboard sound.

 

Might be your fix right there. You're not alone with odd sound problems. Sometimes, i get a weird static sound when I play Q3 engine based games. Haven't been able to figure it out either. Anyways, getting a sound card and disabling the onboard will free up some resources for you too. Let us know how it turns out. Dumb question: how old are your speakers?

[Boba Rhett]

Hmmm, probably 3 years old? They're just an old pair my Dad had that he only used for like a year. I connected a second set and also head-phones. They all had the same sound present.

[jon_hill987]

Problem 1: I can't view hidden files. every time I set view hidden files and folders in the folder options it reverts back as soon as I close it (and the hidden files don't show up in the mean time).

 

This is starting to irritate me. Anyone know what is going on?

 

Problem 2 (now fixed): For some reason my internal Hard disk (I only have one) is now showing up in safely remove hardware. I just flashed my BIOS and after rebooting everything re-installed itself correctly, apart from this it seems.

[Boba Rhett]

Check the following reg key:

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]

"Hidden"=dword:00000001

 

It should end in 1 and not 2.

 

If this is changed/has multiple entries it is probably from some malware/trojans.

 

 

Even though you already remedied the situation: I don't know what you have but SATAII allows hard drives to be hot swappable. It will say it can be removed even if it's your only hdd. Windows will most likely recognize that it's a system drive and not allow you to remove it if you try.

[jon_hill987]

Check the following reg key:

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]

"Hidden"=dword:00000001

 

It should end in 1 and not 2.

 

If this is changed/has multiple entries it is probably from some malware/trojans.

 

Yes, turns out I have W32/VB-CYG, a worm that spreads through removable storage and hides itself by turning off view hidden files. I only found it a few minutes ago when I plugged on of my USB drives into my Linux machine and there was an autorun.inf pointing to a fun.xls.exe i knew nothing about. trying to work out how to get rid of the damn thing now, my virus checker (Avast) won't get it...

 

As for part 2, yes I do have SATAII, a new registry entry was needed to have it not display in the safely remove list. I didn't really want to take the risk of having it there, what if you could remove it? though in theory it would be like trying to rip your arm out of its socket, with the same arm.

 

UPDATE!

 

Worm: DEAD!

Hidden Folders: Now showing again!

 

I must say it is a pain making your computer delete a file that you can't see.

 

For anyone who is interested here is how I removed the hidden files /autorun.inf and /fun.xls.exe, here it is:

 

Run the command prompt and type

CD C:\
edit autorun.inf

 

Delete all the data and then save

 

Do the same for fun.xls.exe

 

this may sound strange but it is needed to get rid of the protection if you try to delete the files before doing this it says they can't be found.

 

now type

 

del autorun.inf
del fun.xls.exe

 

Also delete the back up files and fix the registry.

 

The advanced tab of this will help: http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/w32vbcyg.htm

[Ray Jones]

Windows is great, isn't it?

[jon_hill987]

Windows is great, isn't it?

No.

 

 

 

I have another question for you knowledgeable people. it is about re-installing XP MCE 2005 on SATAII drives.

 

How easy is it? I have heard some horror stories about SATAII and XP. Something about needing to load extra drivers via a floppy disk. Thing is, I have no floppy disk drive, is this a problem? I know it can be done as Windows was installed when I got it but will I need an external 3.5" or could I use a USB Stick?

 

My PC's spec is in my sig.

[JKLE_Cougar]

No.

 

 

 

I have another question for you knowledgeable people. it is about re-installing XP MCE 2005 on SATAII drives.

 

How easy is it? I have heard some horror stories about SATAII and XP. Something about needing to load extra drivers via a floppy disk. Thing is, I have no floppy disk drive, is this a problem? I know it can be done as Windows was installed when I got it but will I need an external 3.5" or could I use a USB Stick?

 

My PC's spec is in my sig.

 

 

its funny cause i actually JUST recently did this with my dual boot, ya you need to install drivers when the blue screen boots up like the dos blue screen youll see at the bottom to install drivers hit F4 or F6 something like that and i belive you do need a floppy drive, my computer has one so i didnt have that problem but its worth looking into if you can use a flash drive instead im not sure tho hope that helps

[jon_hill987]

I'm wondering if I will have to do it, all of the instructions I have found are for either home or pro. I can't find out for sure but i think XP MCE 2005 might come with the necessary drivers. SATA II came out in 2003 (as far as I can tell) so Microsoft had 2 years to include the relevant drivers. I have found that it is possible to make a custom XP install CD which has the drivers on it, I don't really want to go down this route though as MCE 2005 comes on 2 disks and it may make it quite complicated to do that.

 

UPDATE: The install worked, it turns out that with a recent version of XP you only have to F6 drivers if you want RAID, basic SATA drivers are included.

[MrWally]

So whenever I try to watch a movie file of any kind my computer starts "lagging" (I guess would be the best word for it). For example: I downloaded a video my sister sent me and I open it in Windows Media Player and all of a sudden it's a strain just to move the mouse across the screen, the video doesn't even start up, and I have to ctrlaltdel out (which takes a looong time). I uninstalled various codecs I had on my machine and if I try to play a video of course it runs fine, I just don't get any video feedback. It's been doing this for a couple weeks, but the funny thing is that a few days after it started I thought I'd just give it a try (didn't do anything) and opened wmplayer and lo and behold it worked fine, but the next morning it's all crappy again. Games run fine, and videos in games are great as well (fmvs i mean), it's just videos I try playing back in a video player (and it doesn't matter what type either, avi, mov, mpeg, etc). I've tried with countless video players and with the DivX, Klite, and xVid codecs, but to no avail.

 

Any ideas?

 

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

If you havn't tried mplayer, you should give it a try.

 

You may also want to try uninstalling all of your codecs and using this codec reset utility. That, and not using Klite.

[manoman81]

OK, so I've been able to play with the latest release of Ubuntu and I have a few questions: I got Automatix and got a few programs that I thought I could use. The utility to mount my windows drives came in handy. Are there any other proggies I should look into? Specifically, media players and such? Also, is there a way to edit the refresh rate for my screen? I was able to do it in windows so I know the chip set can support it.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

I use mplayer (apt-get it if you don't want to install from source) for my media player (don't forget the codecs from the mplayer site, see my above post for the link).

 

To edit your refresh rate, install your video card's drivers and change the refresh on the driver control panel (I know nVidia's drivers have this option, dunno about ATi).

[IG-64]

My monitor has been doing something weird. I hear a click and the screen darkens and zooms in a bit then slowly corrects itself. It's a Dell CRT monitor. Anyone know what could be wrong with it?

[BongoBob]

OK, so I've been able to play with the latest release of Ubuntu and I have a few questions: I got Automatix and got a few programs that I thought I could use. The utility to mount my windows drives came in handy. Are there any other proggies I should look into? Specifically, media players and such? Also, is there a way to edit the refresh rate for my screen? I was able to do it in windows so I know the chip set can support it.

 

For media players I only use one program, and that's VLC media player. Plays everything I've ever thrown at it, and it isn't a memory hog, and is very simple and clean.

 

As for the refresh rate, if it doesn't show up in System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution, you have 2 options. You can edit your xorg.conf file manually, by opening up a terminal and doing this:

 

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 

Then find the section that looks like this:

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier     "Compaq 7500" *NOTE: This is my monitor, yours probably won't be named this.*
   HorizSync       30.0 - 65.0
   VertRefresh     50.0 - 75.0
   Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

 

And edit it to the refresh rates you want. They can be the single refresh rates you want or a range like the above example. Save it, and then restart X by hitting Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. If you somehow effed up your xorg.conf, login to the command line interface and then:

 

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo shutdown -r now

 

This will make things back to the way they were, and you can try again, or try the second way.

 

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

 

This will bring up a whole series of questions, and you can set up everything from there and it will automatically backup your xorg.conf and make a new one with your new settings.

[RoxStar]

My monitor has been doing something weird. I hear a click and the screen darkens and zooms in a bit then slowly corrects itself. It's a Dell CRT monitor. Anyone know what could be wrong with it?

 

My Emachine CRT did that and eventually warped into a trapezoid. We had to set the geometry to an upside down trapezoid to correct it. The screen eventually became so bad that it was headache inducing to use, so we got rid of it.

 

 

Hopefully that will not happen to you! ha

[Ray Jones]

My monitor has been doing something weird. I hear a click and the screen darkens and zooms in a bit then slowly corrects itself. It's a Dell CRT monitor. Anyone know what could be wrong with it?

Maybe you accidentally activated the degauss function of your monitor?